Photographs │ Brighton │ Royal Pavilion

The Royal Pavilion was designed by John Nash for the Prince Regent (the future George IV) between 1815 and 1822, and excudes the exoticism of the Orient that had fascinated the people of the period. Taste in art and architecture is highly personal, but to quote The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, 628 (19 October 1833) p. 242:

In its external architecture, the Pavilion assumes the characteristics of the Oriental styles, and domes, and cones, and minarets, spring from its roofs to a considerable height. Its pretensions to Orientalism are, however, set aside by Mr. Daniell, a very competent authority, who observes that “if the architect aimed at an imitation of Oriental architecture, it is to be lamented that he trusted so implicitly to conjecture, for there is not a feature, great or small, which at all accords with the purity, grandeur, and magnificience, that characterize the genuine Oriental style.”